


Remember Our First Date?

by phantomhive3108



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Awkwardness, Bus, F/M, First Date, Fluff, Modern AU, Trains, gig
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 08:58:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6188293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomhive3108/pseuds/phantomhive3108
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Happy Follower Appreciation to the fabulous alyssagee918! Winner of my 1st Place Prize (2000 word DA fanfiction) in my giveaway. Thank you for your support!</p><p>One-shot Modern AU featuring alyssagee's sweet and loveable Hawke. Alyssa and Fenris head off on their first date to see the Red Jennies rock the stage... At least they try to. </p><p>Enjoy the fluffy goodness and creative band naming.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remember Our First Date?

The plans had been in the works for months.

The Red Jennies were in town and she was not going to miss it. She bought two tickets and set one aside for Isabela: her partner in crime when it came to gigs. When Isabela’s favourite beau of the season strolled back into town, though, Alyssa found herself stuck with a spare ticket.

And there was only one other person she knew who enjoyed the band enough to want go. Coincidentally it was also the person she had wanted to but never had the courage to ask. Thus, after two weeks of gearing herself up, she drunkenly offered him the ticket.

He said yes.

“IT’S A DATE!”

She turned a deep dark shade of red as soon as the words barrelled their way out of her mouth.

Kill me now. Open the biggest frigin’ hole and swallow me up. Now. Fuc-

“Uh, sure.” He smiled as he shrugged his arms into his jacket before leaving.

It took her two more weeks to recover.

And here she stood now, desperately willing the cab to get there faster. She wasn’t in the habit of treating herself to such luxuries but she was running late. Really late. The kind of late that looked really bad on a first date. But of course, who could have predicted she’d leave the gig tickets at home and not realise until she had walked all the way to the station?

Anyone. Literally anyone.

She did this sort of thing all of the time. She had just hoped luck would be on her side tonight but unfortunately the nerves took over. They always did when Fenris was involved. The way he looked at her, the deep tones of his voice, the intensity with which he spoke…

“Hawke? Alyssa Hawke?”

The pre-ordered car had pulled up whilst she was caught up in berating herself. She all but dived in headfirst into the back seat.

“Viscount Gardens station, please! Quickly.”

He still hadn’t text back. She sat in the cab contemplating whether to text him again, apologising. Would he just ditch her now? Just go home, maybe? She was 23 minutes- no, correction- 26 minutes late to meet him outside the station.

This literally can’t get any worse…

The tires screeched as the over-enthusiastic driver pulled up outside station. Just this once she praised and thanked the cabbie for speeding. Just this once though.

As she stepped out onto the curb, her eyes darted from left to right, desperate to catch sight of him.

Oh gods, he really has gone home.

“There you are.”

She spun on her heel nearly knocking the pots of frozen yoghurt from his hands.

“Fenris! Oh Maker! Sorry! I’m here. Hey!”

He raised an eyebrow. “Yes, you’re here. Breathe. I got a craving and thought you might want some.”

He handed her one of the pots with one of those cute little plastic, coloured spoons.

“Oh, thank you! I- yes. Thanks. I’m so sorry.”

He shrugged, apparently unfazed by the whole affair. “It’s ok. But we really should get going you know.”

“Yes, of course! I just need to find my… travelcard…” She rummaged one-handed in her purse, holding her frozen yoghurt aloft. “It has to be in here somewhere...”

Oh Makers, please don’t do this…

“Oh thank the gods, here it is. Thought I’d forgotten that too!”

Again, he gave her an incredulous look.

“Sorry. Ready.” She laughed nervously and stepped up to the gates.

Beep beep beep beep.

She swiped her card again.

Beep beep beep beep.

Swipe.

Beep beep beep beep.

Insufficient funds.

“Oh for f-“

“Something wrong with your card?” Fenris stood by her as she did all she could not to groan or swear. Those were not appropriate behaviours for a first date.

“Uh, yeah. I just need to put some money on it. Can you bear with me just a second? Hold on to this, please.” She handed him her untouched fro-yo, which was quickly starting to melt.

He followed her over to the machines whilst she once again dove into her bag in search of her wallet.

Except, of course, it wasn’t in there. Why should it be? Why should anything be going right? Like, honestly, how much could she expect?

“Hold this.”

Fenris handed her both pots and took her card before she could react. He swiped it on the machine and fed it a twenty.

“Fenris… Thanks. You didn’t have to.”

He handed her back her card in exchange for his fro-yo. “We’d never get there if I didn’t.”

Her heart sank. Was he mad at her? Or was this just his usual brand of bluntness she should be used to by now? Those questions gnawed at her whilst he moved off ahead.

He passed through the gates and waited for her to catch up. She beeped through and kept her eyes to the ground, still too embarrassed to look at him. They walked down the platform in time for the train’s arrival.

They hopped on and settled into two free seats. Alyssa finally picked up the spoon out of the melted slush of her fro-yo and began to absent-mindedly work through it as the train set off.

She was halfway through the pot when she stopped and turned to Fenris. “Peanut butter!”

“Yes…?”

“You got me peanut butter. How did you know it was my favourite?”

He looked away and smiled. “Lucky guess.”

She briefly narrowed her eyes but otherwise let it drop, returning to enjoying the still delicious melted mess.

It wasn’t long before the sound of the intercom buzzing to life interrupted the awkward silence that hung between them.

“Due to a signalling failure up ahead, this train will be terminating at the next station. I repeat, this train will be terminating at the next station. We apologise for any inconvenience.”

“Oh come on!” Alyssa shot up from her seat and darted over to the map. “Ok, if we swap lines and go to-“

“Uh, Alyssa?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t think that plan’s going to work.”

“Wh- Ohhww!”

As the train pulled into the station, they saw all the other stationary trains. They weren’t going anywhere fast. The doors opened and they joined the throngs of people that milled around waiting for updates.

Alyssa headed straight over to a station worker.

“Hey! Sorry, can you tell us what’s going on?”

The gruff man shrugged. “Signalling failure. We’ve been instructed to tell everyone to wait patiently or to jump on a bus. S’up to you.”

The man turned away to deal with other grouchy commuters.

“Look, Alyssa, maybe we should just call it quits on the gig.” Fenris offered.

Oh god. He just wants to go home. This is such a disaster. You’ve got to fix it! 

“No! No! Come on! We’ll get the bus. It’ll be fun!”

She walked off quickly, not wanting to see the look of disbelief on his face.

It’ll be fun? Seriously, Alyssa. Get it together.

Fenris followed her out of the station and out onto the main road. She was furiously tapping away on her phone and finding the best route to get them there.

“Here! The K42 should pretty much take us to the concert hall. This way!”

She left him no time to respond before she grabbed his forearm and darted down the street with him in tow. They crossed the road at a jog and then straight down towards the bus stop. The gods must have finally been looking down on her because the K42 arrived within moments of them reaching the stop.

They swiped their cards (successfully) and made their way to the empty back row of the bus. Alyssa dropped into the seat with a huff. She was too nervous to glance at Fenris beside her, terrified she’d see a look of exasperation and general displeasure. Unfortunately, she was so used to his broody, no-nonsense side, it wasn’t hard to imagine he was fed up of this date already.

Her hands slipped into her bag and reached for the tickets. She pulled them out and read them absentmindedly.

“How did you get into Red Jennies?”

“Huh?” Her head darted up to find Fenris looking at her. “Oh, uh… I’m not sure. I think I heard one of their songs during the credits of some movie and looked them up from there. I think… Yeah. Kinda weird.”

He gave her a small smile and continued watching her as she stuttered into silence. It made her blush.

Goddamnit. Those blue eyes!

“Um, uh. What about you?”

The question prompted him to break his gaze and look ahead down the aisle of the bus. “A friend of mine from college introduced me to them. He was really into them. Haven’t really stopped listening to them since.”

“That’s nice. Up until I met Bela- and then you- I never really knew anyone else who’d even heard of them, let alone liked them. I remember a few years back they were performing in town and I really wanted to go but I couldn’t persuade anyone to come with me.”

“Why didn’t you just go by yourself?”

“Ehhh… Looking back I should have done that. I just didn’t have the confidence to do that back then. Have you ever done that? Gone to a gig by yourself?”

“Not really. I took a girl to see Ativan Crows once and she hated it so much she left, so I ended being by myself. Does that count?”

“Wait! You got to see the Antivan Crows before they broke up?!”

Fenris chuckled at her sudden excitement. “Yeah. It was a great gig too.”

“I’m so jealous! That sounds awesome.”

“It would have been much more fun to have you there. It’s one thing to go to a gig alone but it’s something completely different to get stood up when you’re there.”

“Well, you’re under no threat of that with me… I mean, because you know… I really like the band.”

Again with the blushing, Alyssa? Are you serious?!

She quickly turned her head towards the window to hide the embarrassment.

Caught up in the conversation as they were, neither had noticed that the bus had come to a standstill a while ago. A few blocks from the station and they’d already hit traffic.

Fenris glanced down at his watch. “They should be taking the stage by now.”

Alyssa’s heart sank. She sat nervously through the rest of the journey, not daring to check the time. Eventually the bus pulled in at the stop they needed and she leapt off, a much calmer Fenris following behind.

As she legged it down the street, he kept up with long strides. 

“Alyssa, you can slow down-“

“No! We’re almost there! Come on!”

“Alyssa!”

She sped up, disappearing round the corner towards where the venue was. When he caught up with her she had come to a stand still, looking ahead at the concert hall.

The crowds were already pouring out onto streets.

They’d missed it.

“Hey, don’t worry…”

“I’m SO sorry!” She wasn’t sure she’d ever felt so absolutely disappointed.

“Why are you sorry?”

She turned to face him. “Because I completely screwed this evening up! This was supposed to be so perfect. We were going to meet up, have a normal train ride here, have a few drinks, watch the gig and just… and just have a nice normal date.”

Fenris laughed. “Normal? Why would we want normal?”

“I didn’t mean normal. I meant just not absolutely disastrous! I completely screwed this up.”

“Did you stand me up?”

“No.”

“Did you plan to miss the concert?”

“No.”

“Did you or did you not cause the signalling failures on the train line.”

“No…”

“Alright, then.”

“You really don’t think tonight was that bad?”

He took a step forward and reached up to brush her cheek with soft fingers. “I was just looking forward to spending time with you. I did that. Albeit in a slightly odd fashion… but I did nonetheless. I found out you like Antivan Crows…”

She finally broke a smile, her head tilting in to his touch. “And that my favourite fro-yo flavour is peanut butter.”

“I actually already knew that.”

“You did?”

“I might have paid a bit more attention than I should have, to your likes and dislikes since we met… I really like you, Alyssa.”

“I really like you too.”

Fenris leaned in and placed a soft kiss against her lips. Even though it lasted a few short moments, she was left completely breathless. That made him grin. 

“Come on, I know a bar around the corner you’ll enjoy.” He took her hand and led her away from the crowds still leaving the concert.

As they walked, she reached into her bag and pulled out the gig tickets again.

“Guess we won’t be needing these then.”

He glanced back at her hand and stopped in his tracks. Reaching across he took the tickets from her.

“What’s wrong?”

Fenris looked back up her.

“These tickets are for tomorrow’s show.”


End file.
